Mr. Runyon to Mr. Olney.
Berlin, August 21, 1895. (Received Sept. 4.)
Sir: I have the honor to report the receipt of the telegram from the State Department of the 12th instant in regard to the case of Mr. Louis Stern, the facts of which are already known to the Department.
Mr. Stern, by telegraph, requested me to support his petition for a pardon or a commutation to a pecuniary penalty of the sentence of [Page 467] imprisonment. His attorney, Mr. Bernstein, also conveyed, by telegram, Mr. Stern’s wish on that subject to me, and in so doing referred to the fact that Mr. Stern had during the controversy—or perhaps during the litigation—offered to give for the poor of Kissingen 5,000 marks. In reply to the telegram I took occasion to say to Mr. Bernstein that I did not gather or understand from Mr. Stern’s conversation with me that he was under any obligation to pay the 5,000 marks for the benefit of the poor, and I added that I did not understand to the contrary from him (Mr. Bernstein). I said also that it might be that the Bavarian Government would think that the authority of the law, if there had been an infraction of it, had been sufficiently vindicated by the judgment and sentence without enforcing the latter, and that, therefore, under the circumstances the public interest would be best subserved by a full and unqualified pardon.
To this Mr. Bernstein said, by letter, that Mr. Stern was not bound to such payment, but that by agreement with Mr. Stern he had stated in his petition for pardon or commutation that Mr. Stern was willing to pay the amount for the benefit of the poor in case the petition should be granted. I deem it proper to mention these facts as part of the history of the transaction.
Having been informed by Mr. Bernstein yesterday of the withdrawal of the appeal and the making of an application for pardon or commutation, I, in accordance with my instructions and pursuant to the request of Mr. Stern and Mr. Bernstein, at once, on the same day, saw, in an interview which I sought for the purpose, Baron von der Taun, chargé d’affaires of the Bavarian Government here in Berlin, and through him conveyed to his Government my official support of the application.
I have, etc.,